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Billy Wilder dies, 95
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2002 4:23 pm
by fable
Wilder was an Austrian-born film director whose major career was entirely in the US. He shared writing credits with Lubitsch on the latter's great comedy, Ninotchka, and went on to direct a couple of Hollywood classics, Sunset Boulevard, and Some Like It Hot.
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2002 4:41 pm
by Kayless
God, another one bites the dust. Maybe we should have Buck make an obituary forum just to keep up.
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2002 4:46 pm
by Bloodstalker
Wait, there is more........Randy Castillo, dummer for Ozzy throughout the 80's and last in the employ of Motley Crue passed away with cancer
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2002 4:56 pm
by Kayless
Okay, I added a new Obituaries thread so we won't spam up the board with all these threads.
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2002 5:32 pm
by fable
Sorry, but I think this is a perfect place to disguise Wilder's films and influence. He'd get lost quickly in a topic that was just generally for obits. Just my POV.
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2002 5:39 pm
by Kayless
It's all right, I'm not picking on you fable. 
It's just that there've been, what 3 or 4 of these death threads now? I thought that by condensing them I'd be doing the board a service. Besides, no offense intended, but I don't see this as a particularly hot topic of conversation. Feel free to prove me wrong though. 
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2002 6:05 pm
by fable
Well, I could ask--who's seen any of the films I've mentioned? They're all well worth it.
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2002 6:31 pm
by VoodooDali
He was a great filmmaker. I was surprised he was still alive, though.
I am even more surprised that Mickey Rooney is still alive.
Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2002 12:29 am
by Beldin
Originally posted by fable
Well, I could ask--who's seen any of the films I've mentioned? They're all well worth it.
I've seen most of them - since he was born in Austria it's kind of mandatory for me...
Sorry to see him go .
Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2002 7:13 am
by fable
Originally posted by VoodooDali
He was a great filmmaker. I was surprised he was still alive, though.
I am even more surprised that Mickey Rooney is still alive.
But Rooney was about ten in the early 1930s, when he played Puck in Reinhardt's celebrated filming of A Midsummer Night's Dream. That was about the same time that Wilder released his first film, in France.
Rooney was a sad case. A very fine actor with enormous energy and focus, who matured into a short, dumpy guy at a time when all film leads were expected to be tall, rugged and handsome.
On a separate note, Lubitsch and Wilder's Ninotchka is available from most good video stores, as are (definitely) Some Like It Hot and Sunset Boulevard. All three are highly recommended.